RIVET CAVELIER, PIERRE, clerk of court, royal notary, acting king’s attorney, legal practitioner, director of the tax-farm of the Domaine d’Occident; baptized 15 March 1684 at Lachine, under the name of Cavelier; son of Pierre Cavelier, a bourgeois, and of Louise-Anne Du Souchet; d. 8 Feb. 1721 at Quebec, buried the next day.

Rivet – we do not know exactly when or why he adopted this name – began his career in the jurisdiction of Montreal. He was clerk in the court registry there from 1699 to 1701, and acting king’s attorney in the last year. He then settled at Quebec, where in 1704 he was clerk in the provost court registry. He was only 20. In 1707 François Rageot, the head clerk of this court, grew sick of his duties; after an interregnum under LA Cetière, who was soon dismissed, Rivet was appointed court clerk on 10 Nov. 1707. The king confirmed him in this office on 7 July 1711, but Rivet resigned on 17 Sept. 1714. Meanwhile, on 12 Oct. 1709, he had been made royal notary in the jurisdiction of Quebec, taking the place left vacant by the death of François Genaple.

Rivet had long worked under Charles de Monseignat, beginning in 1706 as chief clerk of the tax-farm of the Domaine d’Occident, and from 1 June 1713 on as clerk in the court registry of the Conseil Supérieur. On Monseignat’s death he succeeded him in his two functions, as director of the tax-farm on 21 Oct. 1718, and as chief clerk of court of the council on 28 Nov. 1718. His appointment as clerk of court was ratified by the king on 3 May 1719. Rivet was admitted to his office and officially installed on the following 9 October.

When he died in 1721 Rivet was the head churchwarden of the parish of Quebec. On 28 Nov. 1708 he had married Marie-Madeleine Rageot, daughter of Gilles Rageot*, royal notary and clerk of the provost court, and sister of Charles, Nicolas, and François, who were all royal notaries and provost court clerks, as was Rivet himself.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.